St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-09-17

me. III picture SdllelIcS VIC udf& O1Gcu
seen representations of Walter Scott and
his friends or Washington Irving with
his associates; but all those engravings
will fade out, while through everlasting
ages, hanging luminous and conspicuous,
will be the picture of you and your
Christian guests.
You see we have passed out from the
trials into the rewards of Christian hos
pitality; grand, glorious and eternal.
The first reward of Christian hospitality
is the divine benediction. When any one
attends to this duty, Gods blessing comes
upon him, upon his companion, upon his
children, upon his dining hall, upon his
parlor, upon his nursery. The blessing
comes in at the front door, and the back
door, and down through the skylights.
God draws long mark of credit for
services received. Christ said to His dis
ciples: "He that receiveth you, receiveth
Me; and he that giveth cup of cold
water in the name of disciple shall in
no wise lose his reward" AS we have
had so many things recorded against us
in Heaven, it will be a satisfaction to
have written on unfailing archives the
fact that in the month of May, or June,
or September, or December, 1887, we
made the blissful mistake of supposing
/ that we were entertaining weak men like
ourselves, when 10! they showed their
! pinions before they left, and we found
out that they were angels unawares.
Another reward comes in the good
wishes and prayers of our guests. l do
not think ones house ever gets over
having had good man or woman abide
there George Whitefield used to scratch
on the window of the room where he
was entertained passage of Scripture,
and in one case, after he left, the whole
| household was converted by the reading
of that passage on the window pane.
! The woman of Shunem furnished
little room over the wall for Elisha, and
all the ages have heard the glorious con-
/ sequences. On cold, stormy winter
night nv father entertained Trueman
! Osborne, the evangelist, and through all
eternity I will thank God that Trueman
| Osborne stopped at our house How
many of our guests have brought to us
coincidence, and sympathy, and help
There is legend told of St. Sebald that
| in his Christian rounds he used to stop
/ for entertainment at the house of
a poor cartwright. Coming there one
day, he found the cartwright and his
family freezing for the lack of any fuel.
St. Sebald ordered the man to go out and
break the icicles from the side of the
house and bring them in, and the icicles
were brought into the house, and thrown
on the hearth, and they began to blaze
Immediately, and the freezing family
gathered around and were warmed by
them. That was legend; but how
often have our guests come in to gather
up the cold, freezing sorrows of our life,
kindling them into illumination, and
warmth, and good cheer! He who opens
his house to Christian hospitality turns
those who are strangers into friends.
Years will 60 by, and there will be great
changes in you, and there will be great
changes in them. Some day you will be
sitting in loneliness, watching bereave-
ment, and you will get letter in strange
handwriting, and you will look at the
postoffice mark, and say: "Why, don't
know anybody living in that city," and
you will break the envelope, and there
you will read the story of thanks for your
Christian generosity long years before,
and how they have heard affair off of your
trouble. And the letter will be so full of
kindly "reminiscences and Christian con-
dolence, it will be plaster large enough
to cover up all the deep gashes of your
soul. When we take people into our
houses as Christian guests, we take them
into our sympathies forever. In bort,
Holland, soldier with sword at his
side stopped at a house, desiring lodging
and shelter. The woman of the house
at first refused admittance, saying that
the men of the house were not at
home; but when he showed his crc-
dentials that ne had been honorably
discharged from the army, he was
admitted and tarried during the
night. In the nighttime there was a
knocking at the front door, and two
ruff1ans broke in to despoil that house
hold. No sooner had they come over
the doorsill than the armed guest, who
had primed his piece and charged it with |
slugs, met them and telling the woman
to stand back, am happy to say, dropped
the two assaulting desperadoes dead at
his feet. Well, now there are no bandits
prowling around to destroy our houses;
but how often it is that we find those
that have been our guests become our
defenders We gave them shelter first,
and then afterward in the great conflicts
of life they fought for our reputation;
they fought for our property; they fought
for our soul.
Another reward that comes from
Christian hospitality is in the assurance
that we shall have hospitality shown to
us and to ours. In the upturning of this
life, who knows in what city or what
land we.may be thrown, and how much
we may need an open door? There may
come no such crisis to us, but our chill
dren may be thrown into some such strait. |
He who is in Christian manner hospit
able, has free pass through all Christen
dom. 1t may be that you will have been
dead fifty years before any such stress
shall come upon one of your descendants;
but do you not suppose that God can re-
member fifty years? and the knuckle of
the grandchild will be heard against the
door of some stranger, and that door will
open; and it will be talked over in
Heaven, and it will be said: ''That mans
grandfather, fifty years ago, gave shelter
TO stranger, and now strangers door
Is open for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take a piece
Of lead and cut it in two, and the host
takes one half of the piece of lead and the
guest takes the other half as they part
These two pieces of lead are handed
down from generation to generation, and
from family to family; and after while
perhaps one of the families in want or in
trouble 60 out with this one piece of lead
md find ho o+bor